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George Armstrong Custer II
General George Armstrong Custer II is a product of the Badlands Territory through and through. Some say he's a man trying to unite a shattered nation, others say he's a warlord who promoted himself to dictator, many more think he's just another madman preying off of a want to return the "old days". Nevertheless, General Custer and his army have had a large effect on the Territory as a whole, North Dakota and South Dakota. History Origins The origins of General Custer are not widely known, mostly due to his prior insignificance before taking his new name. However, some older people from the small town of Basket might still remember the name Claude Prius, a bright enterprising owner of a caravan lost in the winter of 2241. Born in 2222, Claude Prius was born to Ben and Lana Prius. A boisterous happy blonde-haired child, Claude made many friends in Basket, with his closest friends being Sadie Grimm and Kirk Torquette. Since there was no schooling, the three worked out in fields and played often. As the friends grew up though, sexual tension began to drive them apart, especially Claude and Kirk over Sadie. However, their group managed to stay together against all odds. However, Claude became a rather resentful rogue and lashed out at his friends. In 2240, the group decided that, in order to leave Basket, they should form their own caravan. Alongside with another friend named Casey, the three pooled together their funds and formed their own small caravan, called the Basket Express. It was little more than a wagon and a brahmin, but it was their ticket out. Claude attitude improved with time, and he mostly just stayed a grump. The Basket Express went unmolested for its few months due to a scavenged Mr. Gutsy that deterred raiders. However, an attack from the then powerful Motorhead Gang destroyed the Mr. Gutsy with the members of the Basket Express barely escaping. The Great Raider Wars were beginning in South Dakota and would only escalate in later years. This would only spell disaster for the Basket Express. Claude Prius and the Basket Express ran out of luck in the winter of 2241. While heading south through the Black Hills to deliver goods, the Basket Express was attacking by a band of Indian raiders. All the members of the Express were assumed dead, a common occurence for small caravans in the area, especially during winter. Unknown to anyone, Claude managed to survive and made his way south through the Black Hills, hoping to avoid Indian bands by avoiding the roads. This proved unwise, as it took Claude even longer to find a town following the road. Two days after the attack, Claude finally stumbled upon a town, Deadwood. Very weak and close to delirious, Claude stumbled into the Gem Saloon and asked for room and some food, giving the saloon owner some the last caps he had. After getting to his room, Claude began to fall deathly ill and couldn't leave bed for a few days, so he slept. After three days, Claude woke up one morning on a sled, naked and robbed outside of town. Near death, he was delirious and began to accept his eventual death. Before Claude could accept the embrace of death, he was rescued unexpectedly by some Indians, from a different tribe than the ones that had attacked him earlier. Not knowing this, Claude threw angry curses at the Indians, hoping to provoke them into killing him and putting him out of his misery. Instead of killing him, the Indians took Claude back to their camp and nursed him back to health. This made Claude suspicious, as he suspected that the Indians might want to enslave or cannibalize him. However, the Indians had another more surprising use for him. A week after his rescue, the tribe's elder asked if Claude was well enough for a short journey. Less cynical than before, Claude replied he well enough to walk and accepted the offer to go on "a short journey". Really, the journey took about two days trekking through raider territory. Claude tried a few times to ask the elder wanted, but the old man stayed tight-lipped. Eventually, after the long trek through the Black Hills, the elder and Claude came to their destination: Mount Rushmore. The Indian elder told him to examine Rushmore closely. Claude had heard of the great mountain before but had assumed it to be just a legend. But now, with it sitting before him, Claude was rendered speechless. The great stone monolith was huge and the faces' solemn and stern. However, as Claude looked closer, he saw the effects that time and vandalism had on the mountain and felt a bit saddened, seeing this great monument. He had something akin to a religious experience at that moment. The Indian elder interrupted Claude's contemplation to tell him about how the history of the mountain and the United States were similar. Both were once great and were admired by all. Both had fallen into disrepair and had been forgotten as of late. The elder then told Claude of a dream he had in which the "white man's hero" would return for the second time to reclaim the country. The elder said that he believed Claude was this same hero he had dreamed of and requested that when he retook the land that he would give the Indians back the land that was taken from them. Due to his near religious experience and awed state, Claude accepted the elder's words completely. He then asked who the first hero to reclaim the country (the Black Hills). The Indian elder did not know the man's name but only knew that he had been a great and terrifying warrior who had brought terror to the tribes of the area and had blonde hair just like Claude's. Upon that, the old Indian indicated that they should leave, lest the raiders of the area catch them. Returning to the Indian village, Claude decided to investigate to find out who this "first hero" was. After quite a lot of snooping and no results, he worked up his strength and went into Deadwood to find answers. Claude found his answer in an old antique store near the Gem Saloon. A picture sitting on a shelf matched the description the elder had given, blonde with a military uniform. The label on the bottom read: George Armstrong Custer: 1876. Claide quietly pocketed the old photgraph and left the store, returning to the Indian village. There, Claude decided on his future: he was now George Armstrong Custer II, the reincarnation of the first Custer. Rise to Power The Indian tribe accepted this, as many in this tribe could believe Custer's spirit being in this man. The newly minted Custer, after renaming himself, immediately began to plan to begin his first step in "reclaiming the country": the takeover of Deadwood. It would be a risky business, especially for the Indians, but since their elder trusted this man, the rest of the tribe followed suit. Custer managed to convince a few of the younger Indian men to accompany him into Deadwood to fufill his plan. Only three Indians went with him. They would greatly benefit from this in the future, especially a young Indian woman by the name of Mary Grass-Snake. When in Deadwood, Custer decided to start a trading company called the Deadwood Express in the summer of 2242. This at first seemed foolish because of the number of caravans in Deadwood already and the Great Raider Wars raging outside, but it worked out in the long-term because. This was because Custer's caravans were the only ones absolutely never attacked by surrounding Indian raiding parties. That was because of the markings on the side of the caravans, an early version of Custer's flag, indicated the caravans were Custer's and should not be attacked. This tactic caused many in Deadwood to become reasonably suspicious, especially the head of the Deadwood Militia, Natalie Owens. As his caravans took off, Custer began making alliances in town and displacing his enemies. Custer was unsure of himself and did not feel up to the task and made many mistakes early, such as Natalie Owens and Turnbull. However, with the help of his new Indian allies (Mary Grass-Snake mostly), Custer managed to make allies with the fickle Gun Packers, who began using his caravan for shipping, and the head of the general store, Freddy, who guaranteed his loyalty in case of a coup. His enemies consisted of Natalie Owens, the head of the Deadwood Milita, Turnbull, the matron of the local whorehouse, and Julian Porkle, the owner of the Gem Saloon and the de-facto leader of Deadwood. Despite his enemies' resistance, Custer's trading company rose in power and Custer became the second most powerful man in Deadwood. Custer made a hard decision in the winter of 2244: he was going to finally make his move and dispatch his enemies in the town once and for all. His first target was Turnbull, who was a virulent racist and opposed Custer for his relationship with the Indians. Custer bribed a member of the Turnbull's brothel to stab her to death, then flee town in one of his caravans. Captain Owens investigated the murder and remained suspicious of Custer, but she was unable to find any incriminating evidence. This was due to the hard work of Mary Grass-Snake who managed to stow away all of the evidence. Owens turned her attention away from the petty politics, wanting to keep her full attention on defending Deadwood from the fury of raiders while the Great Raider Wars were in full swing. After taking care of Turnbull, Custer turned his attention to Captain Owens and the Deadwood Militia. Custer, in a bout of pig-headedness, straight up challenged Owens to a duel to regain his honor after being accused of murder. The duel ended badly, with neither person dying but Custer getting a bullet to his right arm. This infected wound kept Custer bedridden, so Mary Grass-Snake took over his operations. Grass-Snake took the more subtle approach, this time being poison. Poisoning Captain Owens with mercury in her food, Grass-Snake managed to knock off another of Custer's challengers before the New Year. Owens was replaced in the Deadwood Milita by a weak-willed successor in January 2245. After taking out Owens, Grass-Snake remained at Custer's bedside constantly, nursing him back to health from his infected bullet wound. Custer's last enemy in town, the owner of the Gem Saloon Julian Porkle, had sat passively on the sidelines watching all this play out. This was because Turnbull and Owens were his enemies as well as Custer's, and he benefitted from their deaths. He also knew all about Custer's allies and Mary Grass-Snake's actions. Knowing Custer was incapacitated and vulnerable, Porkle decided to try to win over Grass-Snake, who he felt could be a valuable asset in the future and was, in reality, more skilled than Custer was. On the night of February 4, 2245, Porkle sent a messenger to Mary Grass-Snake asking for talk to her in the Gem Saloon. Grass-Snake was apprehensive, knowing Porkle was as slippery as a greased pig rat. However, since she was willing to deal with Porkle non-violently, Grass-Snake accepted his offer and left Custer's bedside to meet Porkle in the Gem Saloon. They talked for the entire night and into the morning. The content of their conversation was never discovered, since no one ever asked Grass-Snake. Custer woke up the next day dazed, confused, and alone. Noticing his nurse was gone, the addled man instantly thought that Porkle, his last remaining enemy in town, had taken her captive and was going to kill her. In a act of passion, the weak and aching Custer suited up, called his two other Indian bodyguards, and walked from his room in a hotel all the way to the Gem Saloon. Striding very confidently into the Gem Saloon for someone so ill, Custer loudly announced his presence and called "that swine-bellied pig" to come out and face him. The trouble started when a saloon guard tried to disarm Silent Dan, one of Custer's bodyguards. Custer straight up shot the guard and a large shootout began. The shootout lasted twenty minutes but Porkle emerged in only the last minute, armed with a shotgun. He taunted Custer, saying he had cut out Grass-Snake's heart and would do the same to him. This drove Custer into a blind rage and before Porkle could fire even once, Custer laid a bullet between his eyes and dropped him. The Gem Saloon Shootout of 2245 claimed eleven lives: three of Porkle's guards, one of Custer's Indians, six bystanders, and Porkle himself. Custer sustained serious wounds but had survived and taken the saloon's deed. With Porkle now dead, Custer became the owner of the Gem Saloon and therefore the most powerful man in Deadwood, at last. However, Custer was still fuming over Porkle killing Grass-Snake, who he had harbored a latent attraction to. However, after the shootout, Custer was overjoyed to discover that Grass-Snake had actually slipped out of the saloon once the first shots had been fired, and Porkle was simply try to goad him into a rage. Upon finding her alive, Custer embraced Grass-Snake and kissed her deeply. The Indian woman was surprised by this, but she decided to kiss him back. The Gun Packers (Custer's allies) and Deadwood Militia were initially both shocked and disgusted by the bloody gunfight, seeing it as too public and gruesome. But in time, seeing how much influence Custer had gained in town and among the Dakota Indians, both of the groups began to cozy up to Custer. Thwy became even more eager after Custer publically announced his alliance with the Indians and their promises not to attack any Deadwood caravans. Custer had to recieve emissaries from the two groups in bed, with his infected shoulder getting even worse after the gunfight. At one point, Custer was not seen outside for three days. No one but Mary Grass-Snake, his bodyguards, and his physician were let in to see him. Eventually, another, more mysterious woman was let in to visit the injured Custer. On the sixth day, Custer emerged from his room changed. The biggest difference was the bottom part of his right arm, which had been replaced by a crude robotic replacement. However (no doubt due to aputation), Custer seemed free of the infection that had plagued him for the past few months and stronger than before. He was finally ready to finalize his takeover of Deadwood. Phil, the leader of the Deadwood Militia, put up little resistance. When confronted by Custer in March of 2245, Phil handed over control of the Militia to him. The Gun Packers were a bit more difficult, as Custer wanted to ask more from them. Manufacturers of guns and gun accessories, the Gun Packers were a slippery lot and did not typically like taking sides, preferring to sell guns to anyone with the money to afford them. Custer tried to insist that (different to their original deal) the Gun Packers would supply him and him alone or there would be consequences. He made a mistake of not going with Mary Grass-Snake to advice him. The leader of the Gun Packers, Reese, managed to weasel out of this with his silver tongue and convinced Custer to buy Gun Packer weapons and allow the Gun Packers to export weapons to other needy "communities" (militias and raiders). Only a few days after this, the Motorhead Gang, assisted by the Mount Rushmore Neo-Patriots, staged a full on assault on Deadwood, hoping to crack the town wide open and loot it. Custer was forced to lead the Deadwood Militia for the first time against an experienced and numerous enemy alongside his Indian allies. The young man was clumsy and inexperienced in commanding troops but with the help of the more experienced militiamen and tribal warriors, Custer managed to survive the fight and turn back the Motorheads. This was From that point on, Custer set out to shape the Deadwood Militia and his Indian allies into a proper army to "bring peace to the land". Assisted by higher-ups in the Militia, Custer trained his men and himself to become better soldiers so next time, they could take the fight to the raiders. During this time, Custer became increasingly intimate with Mary Grass-Snake. He considered marrying her but rejected that, deciding to keep things simple by letting her stay his advisor. Great Raider Wars When Custer officially became General Custer of Custer's American Army in the winter of 2245, he became an active player in the Great Raider Wars. However, he and his army waited for the spring to act, not wanting to wage war in blizzards. In that time, Custer planned out his next moves: convincing towns to join him by destroying the raider bands ravaging the area. Also during this time, several women in Deadwood sewed the first of Custer's flags, based upon the designs on his caravans. Custer adopted these as his own and prepared his men for war. The first few outings against the areas raiders were easy, with many of the local groups being crushed and their camps burned. The only groups still fighting him by 2246 were the Leathers and the Motorhead gang. The Motorhead Gang were first on Custer's kill list, as he had a prior grudge with them. In several battles in the Black Hills, Custer's American Army whittled the away the gang's numbers in successive attacks and ambushes. At the same time, the Leathers harassed Custer's forces and worked with the Motorhead Gang. The Battle of Cheyenne's Crossing smashed whatever was left of the Motorhead Gang in later 2246, and any remnants were forced to flee west. Meanwhile, the Leathers, while successful in harassing Custer's American Army, saw the Motorheads get massacred and decided the fight was not worth it. Giving Custer the slip, the Leathers retreated south into Nebraska. Custer claimed victory, but there was no time to celebrate. There was more to be done. The Restored United States of America Family and Ambitions War of the Generals Personality Appearance When he was a young man, Custer was quite handsome in uniform, with his robotic hand adding a rugged look. His blonde hair is one of his another notable features, hearkening back to the first Custer. However, he is not a solid man and was bullied as a child for looking "like a girl". Custer still keeps a respectable image in his old age, as his skin has began to sag and his hair turned a light gray. This doesn't concern Custer, as he is more focused on nation-building than appearance, nowdays at least. Custer usually is in a uniform of a General, befitting his rank within Custer's American Army. When at official RUSA and civilian events, Custer wears pre-War businesswear. Equipment Gallery CustersArm.jpeg|The front portion of Custer's robotic arm Quotes By About Category:Badlands Category:Cyborgs